Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Green Ronin announces Lazarus and Modern AGE, Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition is on its way, Tales from the Loop brings 80s style kid adventure to the tabletop, Dead of Winter gets a PvP expansion, Magic: The Gathering has a hasty update to un-break the game, and more!

Green Ronin announced a licensing deal for Image Comic title Lazarus to act as a launching pad for the new Modern AGE system. From creators Greg Rucka and Michael Link, Lazarus tells the story of Forever Carlyle and her struggle for identity in a future ruled by sixteen different overlord dynasties in a corporate feudalistic society. The campaign setting, World of Lazarus, will launch this fall along with the Modern AGE rules system, taking the AGE engine from Dragon Age, Blue Rose, Titansgrave, and Fantasy AGE and adapting it to more contemporary settings. From the press release:

“We are huge fans of Greg’s work and of Lazarus in particular,” said Green Ronin President Chris Pramas. “The comic’s vision of a world dominated by corporate families and featuring staggering levels of income inequality becomes more relevant by the day. Lazarus tells a powerful story and soon you’ll be able to add your own chapters to that around the table.”

“I’ve been a gamer since I was ten years old,” said Greg Rucka. “RPGs, in particular, have been an important part of my life in so many ways—as recreation, of course; as entertainment, as a means of escape, yes; and, honestly, as an enormously vital part of my development as a writer, and, I would hazard, as a human being. My best friends were made long ago around the gaming table. To have been part of creating something with Michael Lark, and to have that creation standing strong enough that Green Ronin sees its potential as a gaming world, might just possibly be the greatest compliment I could ever receive. It sounds hokey, I suppose, but it’s true—as someone who has spent days, weeks, months, exploring the worlds of others at the gaming table, to add to that is a big deal.

“That I get to do so with Green Ronin makes it all the more of a joy for me. Chris and company know their stuff inside and out, and more, they know where the mechanics end and the story needs to begin. I couldn’t be happier to be working with them on bringing Lazarus to RPGs.”

Warhammer 40,000 Eighth Edition is on its way just in time for the 30th anniversary of the game. The new edition was designed with across the board rules updates taking input from the fans through forums and social media, with revised game stats for almost all units and rules updates to streamline play. Three play modes will be supported in the new edition: Open Play allowing players to choose any units they wish and go at it, Narrative Play which recreates scenarios from historical battles on the Warhammer 40K universe, and Structured Match Play focusing on balance of units for tournaments and organized events.

Games Workshop released a FAQ answering many questions and addressing concerns, stating clearly that all units and miniatures currently sold by Games Workshop will be supported in the new edition (including Forge World) and a new starter set will accompany this new edition. Also, the core rules for the game will now be free and the full rules will be available in “several options” for “handy, low-cost rulebooks”. For fans of the current Seventh Edition, now’s the time to pick up any codices you may need as sales of those will soon be halted. This is the second shorted gap between editions with three years between Seventh and Eighth Editions (the shortest was between Sixth and Seventh, which was only two years). No release date or costs have been announced at this time, but Games Workshop has stated that more details will be released at the UK Games Expo this June.

While pitting players against one another isn’t new to the award winning board game Dead of Winter with its mechanic of secret goals for one player as a “traitor”, the new expansion Warring Colonies takes this a step further. This new expansion takes the game up to 4-11 players as they split off into two different colonies fighting over the same locations and same limited resources. But it’s more complicated than that as new Joint-Colony Crisis cards will force the two sides to work together at times to resolve threats to all the survivors regardless of their allegiance. Why an odd number for a player cap in a two-team competitive game? Because one player can be the Lone Wolf with secret objectives that may require working with or betraying either side. To avoid dragging gameplay with the doubled player count, new rules are also included for simultaneous actions using a sand timer to keep the game flowing. In order to take advantage of all the new options, both Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game and Dead of Winter: The Long Night are required, though either alone can be used with more limited options. No release date or retail price has been announced, but both previous releases had a base retail price of $59.99.

It’s been a while since Magic: The Gathering has been broken by a combo, but Wizards of the Coast has banned a card from Standard Play to prevent an infinite combo. The Copy Cat Combo utilized the abilities of Planeswalker Saheeli Rai from the Kaladesh expansion and Felidar Guardian from Aether Revolt which allowed an infinite spawn of the cat beasts. Basically, Felidar Guardian removes another creature from play and immediately returns it when it enters the battlefield, while Saheeli Rai has an ability costing 2 loyalty that creates a token copy of another creature with haste. Saheeli Rai starts with 3 loyalty, meaning that a player with Saheeli Rai in play could cast Felidar Guardian, use it to remove and return Saheeli Rai to play which resets loyalty, use that ability to create a token of Felidar Guardian, use the copy to remove and return Saheeli Rai to the battlefield (resetting the loyalty to 3), create another token of Felidar Guardian, and repeat giving an infinite number of the 1/4 creatures all with haste. Wizards of the Coast estimated that around 40% of all Standard League decks in Magic Online included this instant-win combo. In a statement about the combo, Wizards of the Coast said:

“We also understand we shouldn't let combos like Saheeli-Felidar get out the door in the first place. For that we take ownership and are making changes to try to prevent this from happening again. But our highest priority is keeping Magic fun and enjoyable for our players. We believe this banning coupled with a number of internal testing process improvements will be significant steps toward making Standard the fun, dynamic format we all want it to be in perpetuity.”

The announcement came as an addendum to the normal banned/restricted list announcement released on April 24 which added Sensei’s Divining Top to the banned list of Legacy and Gitaxian Probe and Gush to the restricted list for Vintage. The next update to the banned and restricted list will come on June 14 and become effective after the Grand Prix Las Vegas.

If you don’t know the name Owen K.C. Stephens, you probably have at least one book on your shelf with his name in the credits. He’s a game designer at Paizo on both Pathfinder and Starfinder, works with Green Ronin on Pathfinder and Freeport products, the Lead Product Manager for Rite Publishing, founder and publisher at Rogue Genius games, and formerly worked on Star Wars SAGA Edition, Black Company RPG, Wheel of Time RPG, Thieves’ World RPG, Dungeons & Dragons, and a lot more. Owen’s Patreon is a one stop shop for all his blog entries, thoughts, and essays on gaming, the game industry, and free content for various game systems.

Cortex Prime is finally on its way from Cam Banks! Banks started Magic Vacuum Design Studio in order to license the rights to the Cortex System from Margaret Weis Productions and is Kickstarting a brand new edition of the system previously powering games such as Leverage, Firefly, Smallville, Marvel Heroic, and more. Not only that, but Cortex Prime is also getting a new creator community, Cortex Creator Studio, allowing you to publish your own material using the Cortex System. A $10 pledge gets you the Cortex Prime Game Handbook, Cortex Prime System Document (the SRD for the Creator Studio), and all digital stretch goals, while $25 adds on a softcover version of the Game Handbook or $35 for a hardcover. This project is fully funded and already unlocking stretch goals for additional campaign settings and rules supplements until it funds on Monday, May 29.

Sentinels of the Multiverse is an award-winning superhero card game. Mutants & Masterminds is an award-winning superhero roleplaying game. Want two great tastes that taste great together? Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a new card game from Green Ronin and Greater Than Games using the same rules and mechanics as Sentinels of the Multiverse with Steve Kenson’s Earth-Prime world. And even better? It’s not just a complete game on its own, it’s completely cross-compatible so you can mix and match sets between the Sentinel games as you choose. The card game is available for a $40 pledge, but if you’re more of a fan of the roleplaying game, there are $15 and $35 pledge levels for PDFs of the Mutants & Masterminds rules and sourcebooks or a $75 pledge level for those who want it all. This Kickstarter has already almost doubled its funding goal and runs until Wednesday, May 17.

Aces & Eights: Reloaded is a complete second edition of Kenzer & Co’s original wild west roleplaying game. There’s also Aces & Eights: Showdown, miniature skirmish rules you can use to enhance the roleplaying experience or just square up at high noon and get ready to draw. The new mechanic for Showdown is a Shot Clock that uses your die roll and the draw of a deck of playing cards to determine precisely where your shot lands, whether you’re using a gunslinger’s revolver or a stagecoach master’s scattergun. There are too many pledge levels to go into as there’s so much packed in this campaign, but they range from $5 for the Shot Clock accessory on its own up to $90 for the Shot Clock, Shotgun Shot Clock, leather hardcover of the RPG rules, two era-reproduction poker decks, and all PDFs including the miniature rules. This Kickstarter is knocking out stretch goals until Tuesday, May 23.

I'm excited about Rucka and Lark's Lazarus making the jump from comic to RPG! Lazarus is at the top of my reading pile and I can't wait for the source book! :-) Green Ronin Publishing made the right call in obtaining this license!

Reviews

Wizards of the Coast is promoting Ghosts of Saltmarsh as an adventure book with a setting and rule supplements so since I already did a spoiler-free review of the book overall, let's take a closer look at the adventures it contains. While I avoid significant spoilers, be aware that broad information about each adventure is mentioned.

The Shadowrun Sixth World Beginner Box due for release at Origins this June will be our first look at the new edition of the now 30-year-old Shadowrun game system. This new edition promises to be a more streamlined experience for new players while still satisfying veterans, but does it live up to that promise?

Ghosts of Saltmarsh will make Greyhawk fans happy without losing newer D&D 5th Edition players. Billed as a supplement for nautical adventures, it's a mix of new rules for ships and sea travel, adventures and supplemental material for any coastal campaign.

Sequels can be a tricky thing to handle, especially when they promise a darker, edgier tone. Despite its much gloomier tone, however, Things from the Flood manages to avoid difficult-second-album syndrome with a game that neatly blends weird sci-fi mysteries and teenage drama, though sometimes it’s hard to tell which aspect is the most dangerous and unsettling.

Gangs kill and terrorize Victory City overwhelming law and order. Super villains run amok. Become a vigilante and strike back using violence to fight violence in the dark setting nicknamed Vigilante City.